All prior art stoves of which I am aware are of the "magazine type." That is to say, they are designed to hold a fixed amount of fuel in an internal container which is capped by a lid. From the point of view of physical resemblance to the present invention, perhaps the most material prior art stove is the soft coal burner disclosed in U.S. Pat. to Cowles No. 806,323. The physical construction of this stove is similar but not the same and the mode of operation is significantly different.
In the Cowles stove, a charge of soft coal is placed in a vertically arranged central magazine suspended in a housing to be discharged for burning as a pile on an open grate beneath. Surrounding the magazine is an annular hot-air-down-draft space which can sweep the pile of burning coal with a throttled annular current of downwardly directed air. Additional air in controlled amount is introduced through the bottom grate. After being charged with coal the magazine is capped with an air-tight cover so that the magazine will be free of air drafts during the burning. Similar arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,506, 2,459, 132,211, 253,144 and 811,199 all of which introduce air from the bottom through a grate as well as from above.